To Be A Friend
by PhoenixTears13
Summary: One-shot. (Though I might add on later if I have the inpsiration to) In Ginny's time of need, when everyone else seems to shirk her, one lone Gryffindor offers her the hand of friendship, bringing her into the circle. Set in Harry's second year.


To Be A Friend  
  
"Ginny?"  
Eleven-year-old Ginny Weasley jumped and whirled around to face a small mousy-haired boy. She breathed a sigh of relief, rubbing her hands up and down her arms to get rid of the goosebumps and finally replied, in a small voice that was barely heard by her fellow Gryffindor, "Hello, Colin."  
He smiled at her and Ginny felt tears well in her eyes; Colin had been the first person to speak with her after the Chamber incident, everyone else in her year, and indeed Gryffindor House was ignoring her. Scared of her.  
They avoided her eyes in the hallways, shirked around her in the Great Hall and ignored her in the common room. The Slytherins cast her disdainful looks and the Hufflepuffs seemed more interested in her plants than watching where they were going; twice Ginny had been dumped in Hippogriff dung when a Hufflepuff carrying a plant ran into her. The Ravenclaws were nice enough though, especially Percy's new girlfriend Penny, but Ginny felt that was only because she wanted Percy to approve.   
"Are you okay?" Colin asked anxiously, taking a step forward; Ginny noticed that his camera was absent from the strap around his neck.  
But, was she okay? No, she wasn't really okay. She had just been made to write her farewell on the wall in blood, no less, and been dragged down into that horrible, awful chamber and now, when school let out for the summer holiday she's spend all of June and part of July in St. Mungo's. So, no, she wasn't okay.  
"Because it's okay if you're not….okay, I mean." Colin told her, fiddling with his hands.  
She stared at him, remembering vaguely that Colin had approached her earlier in the year too, around December when she spent so much time in the Common Room writing. She didn't reply though, just stared down at her feet, ignoring his feeble smile.  
"I thought you could come eat with me." He offered, meekly and when she, once again, didn't reply he sighed, "I just wanna be friends, Ginny." He told her exasperatedly, a pleading note in his voice, "Can't we just be friends?"  
Ginny avoided his eyes, tossing her gaze to the ceiling. What if he only wanted to use her? Like Tom (Ginny gave an involuntary shiver) had used her. What if Colin only wanted Ginny to get through to Ron to get to Harry? She shook her head and was about to turn away when Colin grabbed her arm. She shirked away from the physical touch, pulling her arm out of his grasp and turning back to the hospitial wing as a man in a flowing black silk robes with long silvery-blonde hair and a house-elf following him pushed past her.  
"Hey!" Colin protested, "Don't do that to her." He offered Ginny a hand up as Mr. Malfoy whirled around and glared down at the small red-headed figure at his feet.  
"Ahh." He murmured, a sneer curling his upper lip, "The littlest Weasley." He rasied and eyebrow, his tone as cold as ice, "You should stay out of the way."  
"She wasn't in your way." Colin replied, hauling Ginny to her feet where she glanced in fright back and fourth between Colin and Mr. Malfoy. "You were in her's."  
"I beg your pardon." Mr. Malfoy replied, raising his eyebrow imperiously yet again, and before Colin could reply he turned and swept into the Infirmary. Ginny shivered and looked back at Colin before turning to leave, again, he tried to stop her.  
This time, he didn't touch her however, something Ginny was glad for, but stood directly in front of her and it dawned on her that he was trying to force her, even if he didn't mean it, to be friends with him. She didn't like being forced and she gave another shiver. Tom had forced her, forced her to…to… Tears ran down Ginny's cheeks as she glared at Colin.  
"Go away!" She burst out, "Go away, I don't want a friend!" She wiped away her tears, "I don't need a friend."  
Colin stepped aside as she ran past him, digging into her pocket for something, a quill and a bottle of ink before throwing her hand into her other pocket for…for what? The diary? She pushed open the nearest door and realized with a jolt that she was in the first floor girl's bathroom. Of all places to be…  
She sunk to the floor, her hand still digging fruitlessly into her pocket, even though she knew the dairy wasn't there. Knew Tom, as horrible as he was for her, wasn't there. Ginny glanced up, and found the entrance to the Chamber still open, she gave another sob and was about to stand up and leave when her strength gave out. She was tired, she'd been through a lot in the past year, far to much to handle and now it was finally catching up with her.   
Of course, earlier in the year she had had Tom to confind in when everything seemed to be going wrong. Or she had thought she had Tom to confide in. How long had he been using her? How long had he been using her to get to Harry? Had it started just with the Chamber and then the more she spoke of Harry, the more she talked of his accomplishments, the more Tom had altered his plan? Or had he just been playing it dum the whole time? Had he really not known who Harry was and what he had done?  
She gave another, nerve wracking sob and looked up as a voice sounded above her, "What are you doing here?"  
Great, Ginny thought miserably, more people who hated her. She glared up at Mrytle and stood.  
"It's a free bathroom." She replied indignantly, remembering how Myrtle had been when Ginny first entered. She had been friendly, quiet, but friendly until Ginny had thrown a book through her head on accident.   
"Go away." Mrytle ordered and Ginny, unaccoustomed to doing anything else, complied, slaming the door on her way out. She'd show Mrytle, she'd show them all. Next year when she came back she's be….she'd be…she'd be alone. More alone than she was now because she didn't even have Tom.  
What was it that she had told Colin?  
"I don't need a friend."   
That was it, but it was because she had no friends in the first place that she had been so easliy drawn into Tom. She began to wander the halls aimlessly, her mind reveling in memories of the past year. She had made a horrible mistake and now, now she'd spend her summer in a ward, be studied and poked and therapied to death until all she would want to do would be scream.   
Glancing up she found herself in the Entrance Hall at the doors to the Great Hall; she peered in. How long had it been since she sat in the throng of her fellow classmates, instead of at the end of the table? Too long, for she couldn't even remember. She peered into the Great Hall, everyone was sitting, chatting aimably with their friends, everyone except Colin, who was sitting in the throng of things, saving a seat. As she watched he looked up from fiddling with his camera lens and waved to her, a grin breaking out on his face before motioning to the seat beside her.  
Maybe…maybe she did need a friend. Maybe a friend would keep her out of trouble and maybe, just maybe Colin could be that friend. He was certaintly open to the idea. He looked back down at his camera and Ginny seriously considered making a break for it. She could turn around and leave and then, her stomach growled. A low, loud rumbling sound that tumbled around in her gut. She blushed, even though no one was around to hear it and reluctantly stepped inside the Great Hall.  
Nothing went quiet, a few conversations dwindled as heads from assorted tables around the hall looked at her, but overall nobody noticed the entrance of the small red-headed girl. She took a deep breath and walked boldly into the middle of Gryffindor table and sat down beside Colin who glanced up at her, gave her the biggest grin she had ever seen and began to shovel food onto her plate.  
"You're skin and bones." He informed her, putting bacon atop her baked potato and sour cream, "Eat."  
  



End file.
